A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Before the promulgation of the law, Abraham set the example of paying tithes, in giving the tenth of the spoils to Melchisedech, king of Salem, at his return from his expedition against Chedorlaomer and the four confederate kings. And Jacob imitated the piety of his grandfather in this respect, when he vowed to the Lord the tithe of all the substance he might acquire in Mesopotamia. (See Revenues, Ecclesiastical.)

TITLE. (See Orders.) Canon 33. “It has been long since provided by many decrees of the ancient Fathers, that none should be admitted, either deacon or priest, who had not first some certain place where he might use his function: according to which examples we do ordain, that henceforth no person shall be admitted into sacred orders, except (1.) he shall at that time exhibit to the bishop, of whom he desireth imposition of hands, a presentation of himself to some ecclesiastical preferment then void in the diocese; or (2.) shall bring to the said bishop a true and undoubted certificate, that either he is provided of some church within the said diocese where he may attend the cure of souls, or (3.) of some minister’s place vacant either in the cathedral church of that diocese, or in some other collegiate church therein also situate, where he may execute his ministry; or (4.) that he is a fellow, or in right as a fellow, or (5.) to be a conduct or chaplain in some college in Cambridge or Oxford; or (6.) except he be a Master of Arts of five years’ standing, that liveth of his own charge in either of the universities; or (7.) except by the bishop himself that doth ordain him minister, he be shortly after to be admitted either to some benefice or curateship then void. And if any bishop shall admit any person into the ministry that hath none of these titles, as is aforesaid, then he shall keep and maintain him with all things necessary, till he do prefer him to some ecclesiastical living; and if the said bishop refuse so to do, he shall be suspended by the archbishop, being assisted with another bishop, from giving of orders by the space of a year.” The same rules apply to the Irish portion of the united Church.

TOBIT, THE BOOK OF. An apocryphal book of Scripture, so called. Tobit, whose history is related therein, was of the tribe of Nephthali, and one of those whom Salmanassar, king of Assyria, carried away captive, when he took Samaria, and destroyed the kingdom of Israel. This happened in the fourth year of the reign of Hoshea, king of Israel, and the sixth of Hezekiah, king of Judah. The tribe of Nephthali was indeed carried away before by Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria; but this was not a general captivity, there being several still left behind.

The Book of Tobit was written in Chaldee, by some Babylonian Jew, and seems, in its original draught, to have been the memoirs of the family to which it relates, first begun by Tobit, then continued by Tobias, and finished by some other of the family; and afterward digested by the Chaldee author into that form in which we now have it. It was translated out of the Chaldee into Latin by St. Jerome, and his translation is that which we have in the Vulgar Latin edition of the Bible. But there is a Greek version much ancienter than this, from which was made the Syriac version, and also that which we have in English among the apocryphal writers, in our Bible. But the Chaldee original is not now extant. The Hebrew copies of this book, as well as of that of Judith, seem to be of a modern composition. It being easier to settle the chronology of this book than that of the Book of Judith, it has met with much less opposition from learned men, and is generally looked upon, both by Jews and Christians, as a genuine and true history; though, as to some matters in it, (particularly that of the angel’s accompanying Tobias, in a long journey, under the shape of Azarias, the story of Raguel’s daughter, the frightening away of the devil by the smoke of the heart and liver of a fish, and the curing of Tobit’s blindness by the gall of the same fish,) it is much less reconcilable to a rational credibility. These things look more like poetical fictions than the writings of a sacred historian, and afford an objection against this book, which does not lie against the other.

This book is very instructive, full of religious and pious thoughts, and written in a plain, natural, and easy style. Tobit lived an hundred and two years; lost his sight at fifty-six years of age, and recovered it in the sixtieth. Before his death, he foretold the destruction of Nineveh, which happened under Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus, that is, under Astyages and Nabopalasar.

TOLERATION. Johnson defines this word as “the allowance given to that which is not approved.” The Church, as the depository and dispenser of religious truth, cannot bring within the range of its theory the allowance of that which it holds to be error. The Church of England holds (see Art. VI.) that it is not to be required of any man, that anything should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation, which is not read in Holy Scripture, nor may be proved thereby. But if any man profess what is clean contrary to that which the Church has laid down as an article of the faith, then, in the Church’s view, he professes what is contrary to the Scripture, and there can be no warrant for allowing that which is contrary to the Scripture. The Church, however, while refusing any allowance to error, may refrain from denunciation and persecution of those who profess and maintain erroneous doctrines; and in this respect the Church of England is conspicuously more charitable than the Church of Rome: that Church, which dares not venture to say that she requires nothing to be believed but that which may be found in Holy Scripture, or may be proved thereby, nevertheless, wherever she has the power, punishes those who refuse assent to her theories, and makes them personally answerable for the heterodoxy of their principles. Such is not the practice of the Church of England.

The State or political government in England, admits toleration, in the sense of the word as defined by Johnson. Although the Church is united with the State, and the State must be held to approve of the doctrines of the Church, yet it allows, and to a certain extent supports, religious teaching which the Church holds to be erroneous. Whether this be done upon the principle that the State does not hold itself competent to decide between truth and error in religion, but acts merely as the head of a community, in which a variety of conflicting doctrines are maintained, or whether it be done upon the ground of expediency, or what Dr. Paley calls “general utility,” (see his “Moral Philosophy,” book vi. ch. x.,) it is not necessary here to inquire.

Previously to the year 1688, the statute law (see 35 Eliz. and 22 Car. II. c. 1) forbade the public exercise of other religions than that of the Church of England. But the statute of 1 W.& M. c. 18, commonly called the Toleration Act, recognised and admitted the public profession of the religion of Protestant Dissenters, (except those who denied the doctrine of the Trinity,) while it confirmed all the severities, then upon the statute book, against the religion of Papists. This act, however, did not relieve Dissenters from the operation of the Corporation Act, 13 Car. II. c. 1, nor from that of the Test Act, 25 Car. II. c. 2. These acts, which made it necessary that all members of the corporations of towns, and all persons holding office under the Crown, should receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper according to the usage of the Church of England, continued in force until the year 1828, when they were repealed by the 9 Geo. IV. c. 17.

By the Toleration Act of 1 W. & M. c. 18, it was provided, that no law or statute of the realm, made against Papists or Popish recusants, should extend to persons dissenting from the Church of England, who should take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and make and subscribe the declaration against Popery.

Section 8, provides that no person dissenting from the Church of England, in holy orders, or pretended holy orders, or pretending to holy orders, nor any preacher or teacher of any congregation of dissenting Protestants, that shall make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, and take the said oaths at the general or quarter sessions of the peace, to be held for the county, town, parts, or division where such person lives, which court is hereby empowered to administer the same, and shall also declare his approbation of and subscribe the Articles of Religion mentioned in the statute made in the 13th of Queen Eliz., except the 34th, 35th, and 36th, and these words in the 20th Article, viz. “the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith,” shall be liable to any of the pains or penalties mentioned in former acts.